How We Learn
by sockyferret
Summary: This was just a character study that didn't turn out how I expected. I might add more, I might not. But I actually wrote something, so I figured I'd post it. Completely canon compliant.
1. Hermione

Hermione loves to learn. She always has. She loves to learn about anything and everything. And most of all, she loves to learn from books. She loves the smell of the pages, the feel of the binding, and the precious, most precious information held within. Perhaps the only thing Hermione loves more than learning from books is getting to test out the information she gathered. And she learns from this, too.

Hermione learned how to kiss from a book. Well, technically it had been a magazine, and it hadn't been hers, she had found it on Lavendar Brown's bed and had read it because Hermione reads everything. She hadn't expected to be so fascinated. And she hadn't realized that kissing was so complicated. She'd always assumed it was something you just did. Clearly, she thought, she had been wrong. Was Ron secretly disappointed with her kissing because she had never done these things? As she read the tips and techniques, some of which (you could do _that _with your tongue?!) made her blush, her fascination only grew. And because Hermione is Hermione, she felt the need to test it out. Several days later, as she and Ron finally were alone once more, he leaned in to kiss her. Rather than allowing their kisses to follow a natural flow, Hermione immediately began to go through the list of things she had read. Finally, when she had reached what had been number eight, Ron pulled back, looking at her oddly. "No offense, Hermione, but what are you doing?" he had asked. After an awkward moment, Hermione had told him. And then he had laughed, he laughed, he laughed, because, he told her, she already knew how to kiss, silly witch. And that was how Hermione learned to kiss from a book.

Hermione learned that she can admit when she's wrong. She read it once, twice, a million times, and in a million different novels, with a million different characters who could admit when they were wrong. And she believed it, because if nothing else in the world was good and honest and true, books are all of those things. But she herself never had to do such a thing until she found herself utterly, if secretly, convinced that they were fighting a war they could not win. She did everything she possibly could in an attempt to change the fate she believed to be predestined, but she had not thought they stood a lick of a chance. When Harry hugged her for the first time after Voldemort had been defeated, still sweaty and tired, and he felt so solid and warm and alive and _good, _she thought back to those millions of characters who had been so, so wrong, as wrong as she, and had admitted it. And Hermione swallowed her pride because she knew could admit she had been wrong. She had learned it long ago from her books.

Hermione believes that all the information in the world, everything that needs to be learned, can be learned from a book. And perhaps she is right.


	2. Harry

Harry learns things the hard way. It isn't that he's thick; he's far from it. But he has to see it break in front of him for him to believe it's broken. Perhaps this stems from loving, feeling, and (too often, in Hermione's opinion) acting blindly. Whatever the reason, Harry has always learned things the hard way.

Harry had to learn the hard way that he belonged with Ginny. It took a series of jealous fits after seeing Ginny with other boys for him to learn he cared for her. But even then he didn't learn he loved her. It took him pushing her away once again and her pulling right back for him to learn he loved her. Many years after the fact, she tells him that if he'd just seen it back in his second year at Hogwarts he would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. But he had to learn it the hard way.

Harry had to learn the hard way that life can go on after loss. The death of his parents didn't really count, as he didn't remember life before they were gone. But he had imagined that he would simply collapse were he to lose someone dear to him. Then he lost Sirius. He still didn't believe he could go on – he merely forced himself forward because he had to. It wasn't until after he lost Dumbledore, Remus, and the rest that he learned that was exactly how life went on. Because it had to.

And Harry had to learn the hard way that he was worth the love he was given. Though he always appreciated Mrs. Weasley's mothering when he was young, he never believed himself to be deserving a mother. If he had deserved a mother, why had fate taken his away? And while he constantly thanked his lucky stars that he were to have two friends – two! - who were the best friends anyone could ever ask for, he waited for the day that their seemingly ironclad trio would fall apart. And while he never could get enough of Ginny's kisses, certainly she would someday come to her senses and realize that just because he was famous didn't make him great. But when Mrs. Weasley continued to mother him through his twenties and beyond, he wondered. And when Harry, Ron, and Hermione's children grew up knowing each other as well as brothers and sisters – after all, their parents were best friends – he dared to hope. And when Ginny slapped him for telling her his fears two days before their wedding day, telling him he'd better think better of her than that if he expected her to stick around, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. And finally, his daughter gets married and she kisses his cheek before she says her wedding vows. Tears fill his eyes, and she whispers, "I love you, Daddy." And then he had finally learns.

If one were to ask Harry, he would say learning the hard way makes you appreciate what you learn. Perhaps he would be right.


	3. Draco

Draco absorbs some information like a sponge. He can memorize facts and dates and potion ingredients and spells as good as Granger ever could. But other things, the things that really matter, hit a block in his mind, and he refuses to learn at all.

Draco refused to learn that it was alright to have doubts. All through the war, he would not admit that he was anything less that certain. Whenever that tickling feeling of doubt crept into his mind, he would immediately do his best to squash it. And he never learned.

Draco refused to learn that it was alright to feel fear. He never understood, and wouldn't understand, that fear was essential to being brave. If Voldemort's presence, if the actions taking place, if what he was ordered to do made him feel slightly uncomfortable that was one thing. But to feel fear? Unacceptable.

Draco refuses to learn that it is alright for a leopard to change it's spots. And perhaps that is the worst thing to never learn of all.


End file.
